Island/Part two
Confessions Late night with the congressmen, Admiral?.}} Hell, no! They're on their way to Indochina. This was just a stopover. Just — just a distraction.}} Well, that's good. That's wonderful. Thank you, Bryan.}} The president’s man will be arriving soon, sir. Are there any, well, particular instructions in that regard.}} Welcome to the Marshall Islands, sir. Did you get any sleep on the flight?}} Some. I had a cot with the cargo.|The two men speak as they walk from the airfield along a sand-covered pathway fringed with desmodium and Bermuda grass. It is warm and windy as usual on the flat, 3-mile long, ½-mile wide island.}} Jon!}} I was in Hawaii a couple weeks ago.}} Fine. Be my guest|Studeman exits the room, turns in the direction O'Connor had indicated, and enters the next room. It has a table, chairs and window like the other, but also has a large map of the Marshall Islands pasted up and fully covering one of the walls. Levanthal, O'Connor and the colonel come in behind Studeman. At the table sits young Russ, a khaki-uniformed petty officer. He has an elastic band at his chest, a blood pressure measuring device on his arm, and electrical conductivity sensors attached to his fingers.}} Ma'am, you can go along to your quarters if you don’t mind. We won't be needing your services. Thank you very much for coming, though.|The polygraph operator is a stern, humorless, unattractive woman. She looks up, annoyed, at Studeman, and then quizzically at Levanthal.}} My father is an asshole! He would kill me if he knew what I was doing! I'm not a fascist like him. I don't hate. Nobody was supposed to get hurt! They were good people. Good, good people. All they wanted was to make a protest, that's all. I was guiding them in. We thought we had time. When it blew, they were right there. Oh, god! Nobody was supposed to get hurt!}} I have a short wave radio. I had frequencies and callsigns. It was a family. A father, a mother, some kids. They staged out of a campsite on Elvaton Island. That's all I can tell you.}} Where would I go?}} I’m afraid not. The seaplanes are over tasked. I'll tell you what, though. They can probably bum a ride and get pretty damn close. There's an SA-16 we've been using to get a couple RAWIN operators back on Eniwetak for weather forecasting. The airplane has to stay there with the operators. They can’t be left on the island more than an hour or so. Radiation hazard. But if you can arrange for a vessel to rendezvous there, at Eniwetak, well, it could sail up to Elvaton fairly quickly.}} Well, I guess we'll find out.}} The monster of Mittelwerk Show me!|Huzel does not move, so the soldier begins to walk past him toward the trucks. Huzel grabs the submachine gun and pulls, using the shoulder strap in an attempt to drag the soldier to one side of the tunnel.}} Go! Go! Go!|The lead truck starts forward as Huzel struggles with the soldier. The soldier draws his pistol from its holster, but Huzel grabs that hand, and the two men wrestle for control of the pistol. When it is between their bodies, three shots are heard. The truck screeches to a halt. Huzel staggers backwards. The pistol is still in the soldier's hand. Huzel looks down at his own shirtfront. It is stained with blood, but not his own. The soldier falls dead. Huzel looks at Krueger, and sees that Krueger's pistol is pointed at him, the barrel still smoking from the three shots he has just fired.}} Hans, what have you done?}} Take me with you!}} Take me with you! To the Americans!}} Are you insane?}} No!}} All right. Get in.|As Krueger mounts the truck to sit between Huzel and the driver, we flash forward to Krueger in the custody of American occupation forces. He is in a room by himself, pacing nervously. The door opens and a U.S Army officer of Special Forces enters.}} Good news, Henry. Very good news. They have found the materials, just where you said they would. They are ecstatic, and very, very grateful. I now think there is a good chance you will be taken to America with the others.}} I'm sorry.}} Let me give you some advice. If you make it to America, change your story. Tell everyone you are a communist, Henry. You'll do much better with the eggheads. In fact, if you can convince the American scientists that you're a Jew communist, they'll treat you like one of their own.|A close-up of Krueger smiling in appreciation dissolves into the image of Krueger 9 years older. He is balding, and with a pot belly. He is pacing again, this time outdoors, at the gate to Schofield Barracks on Oaho. An Army lieutenant approaches from inside the compound, and a guard hands him what appears to be a drivers license and points him toward Krueger. The lieutenant continues walking and draws near to Krueger just outside the gate. We hear words echoing in Krueger's mind, "Tell everyone you're a communist."}} Here's your ID, eh, Hans-Heinric? What can we do for you, sir?}} Do you know General Walker?}} Well, then, why don’t you just call him?}} Yeah. May I ask what this is about, sir?}} I have a message for you, General. It's from a man who calls himself Henry. He said you'd know what to do.|Walker opens the folded slip of paper and looks at it. A close-up shows the content. : 3-I-4-29 2-I-12-27 : 1-III-3-91 l-V-34-5 : 2-IV-3-12 2-VII-14-86 : 2-III-4-15 l-V-26-44 : 3-II-1-40 2-III-3-5}} I'd appreciate it if you just forget about this, okay?}} }} What man, sir?|When the door closes behind the lieutenant, Walker opens a desk drawer and pulls out a leather-bound book. A close-up shows it to be George Orwell's novel, 1984. Walker smooths the paper on his desk, takes up a pencil, flips through the book to find a particular page and, after counting words, jots a word down on the paper below the columns of numbers. The word is "Unexpected." As he repeats this process the scene fades out and in to signify the passage of time. He is weary now, but has retrieved the entire message. A close-up reveals the content. : Unexpected incident. : Ship vaporized. : All dead. : Instructions needed. : Usual place. A close-up of Walker shows him to be shocked, alarmed and, eyes shifting left and right, wondering what to do. At last he has decided. He takes a lighter from his pocket and burns the note in an ashtray. Then, he picks up a telephone handset and dials a number. After a moment, his call is answered}} Horror on Elvaton Island I can't say about his vice-president. Nixon seems a bit too calculating for my taste. I'm just not sure I trust him.}} Let's not say anything at all. Okay?}} Jesus Christ Almighty! What the hell is that!}} All stop! Full reverse! All stop! Drop anchor, Ensign Harding! Launch the boat immediately! Send a corpsman, two corpsmen! Geiger sampling continuous into shore. Shore party to be in full protective gear. Move! What the fuck is going on here?}} There. Look there! See that cliff with a tarpaulin dangling to the water? Look to the right of that on the sand at the water line. There are two bodies. See them?}} Jesus. I see one!}} Okay. Okay. You get yourselves ashore, then, gentleman. But I expect some answers, do you understand me?|A landing boat is being lowered over the side. Moments later, Studeman, Levanthal, two medical corpsmen, a Geiger counter operator, a Lieutenant Junior Grade and three other sailors, all in similar protective gear, climb down rope ladders into the wooden landing boat and head in to shore. The outboard motor roars noisily and propels them at high speed. Bounding over tiny waves, the coxswain runs the bow of the boat up onto the beach, where they are jolted to a sudden halt at a spot halfway between two bodies on the shore. Levanthal and Studeman go in opposite directions, each in a group that includes one of the medical corpsmen. All are wearing surgical marks. The corpsman with Levanthal's group, assisted by one of the other sailors, drags the lifeless form of a medium build, blond-haired woman up fully onto the beach, and turns the body over. A swarm of flies explodes around them. We can recognize her. She is Alicia Benneton, but her eyes are missing from their sockets.}} This is well healed, sir. This is nothing recent. This child was scarred a long time ago.}} See if you can get that seaplane up here from Eniwetak. I'm going ashore.}} Lower the captain's gig! We're going ashore!|Inside the olive-green canvas shade tent, large enough for five or six men, the shore party has found a small, half-Asian boy lying face-up on a blanket, unconscious but breathing steadily. He is a badly hair-lipped child, bleeding at his lips. Near him are discarded food wrappers and empty water bottles. One of the corpsmen takes a water canister from his belt, kneels beside the child, cradles him in his arms, and tries to revive him and get a bit of moisture past his dry lips.}} Child, you will be all right now. You are safe. We will take care of you. Can you understand me? What do we call you, son? What is your name, child?}} We must be very careful moving him. He should sleep until we get him to hospital.|The corpsman draws open his case and begins to prepare a sedative. The lieutenant enters the tent, still wearing his mask.}} There's no radiation danger. Please send your team out to search the island for other survivors. Shouldn't take long. I'll tell the captain what I can.|Studeman and Levanthal walk together down to the beach and meet the captain's gig coming to shore aside the landing boat. The captain jumps to the sand and walks to them. His face is grim.}} I know how they died. }} Jonathan, are you all right?}} The woman was blinded by the flash of the Koon explosion. She was looking through binoculars for a vessel she hoped would return from the southwest. Her eyes were destroyed. Yes, maybe she felt the tremors and the air blast. She imagined whoever she was looking for had been killed. She had no way to call for help. She and those children were soon to die — horribly — of thirst if they were lucky to die quickly — of radiation poisoning if they lived too long — as that little girl's parents must have died at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But she was ready. She gave the children cyanide capsules before taking one herself. She couldn't tell if they swallowed theirs. The girl took hers and died. But the boy never did. He wanted to live. He's been here alone with their bodies for 3 days!}} The letter Oh, really? Do you mean this meeting, or that cable? Come now. Why don't you just tell me what the fuck you've uncovered so far, Studeman. Let's not beat about the bush. Was this a communist plot?}} Carl was an anthropologist. His wife Alicia was a nurse. Both of them were employed in Japan by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Are you familiar with it?}} Do you mind if I read it first? It was addressed to me, you know.}} You were right. Alicia Benneton. Dear Mr. Nixon. You do not know me, but I knew your mother. She spoke of you often in Gathered Meetings. She would want you to help us. My husband and I are studying radiation sickness in Japan. We have seen horrible suffering and death. We cannot stand by and do nothing. We cannot see our children grow up in a world where such things will happen. We will now put our own lives in danger to stop the madness. My husband plans to take our family to the testing place in the ocean and lay bare the moral indignation of — — lay bare to the moral indignation of mankind this reckless pursuit of more and more powerful engines of horror. But my husband does not know I am writing to you. He would not allow it. He says we cannot trust you. He says you are a bad man. But I believe in you. I believe you are a good man. Your mother is a saint and I know your mother's love is strong in you. You are a Friend. You know we must stop this evil. And I am so afraid. I saw the bomb at Hiroshima. I was there with Father Siemes. He saw it, too. He can tell you how horrible it was. Since then I have watched many men and women, children and babies die. It is unimaginable what the burns and the sickness — the sickness — sicknesses do. I do not want to die that way. I do not want to watch my children die that way. I beg you to help us. Keep us from harm. Please hold my family in the light. Please be on lookout for our boat. It is called Prometheus. Good men are helping my husband already. They know where we should go. By the end of this month we will be at the island called Elvaton. When it is time for the next test we will make ourselves known and we will stop the test from happening. My husband says we will be safe. But still I am afraid. Please send the Navy to Elvaton before it is too late. Have them protect us there. Tell your people to stop the explosions and to let us do our protest in peace and safety. We mean no harm. Tell them to treat us kindly. There are children with us. Our adopted daughter Maya, my dear beautiful son Mikado, and my cousin Robert will be with us on the voyage. Please do not allow anyone to send us to jail. Our only crime is love of mankind, devotion to the cause of peace, and faith in Jesus Christ Our Savior, which I know you share. Yours in Faith, Alicia May Benneton. This is terrible.}} I don't know —}} There's a postscript. It's nothing.}} P.S. So you will know I am sincere, my cousin's name is Robert Atwater. He credits you with saving his life, and I am praying you will do the same for him again, and save us all. Who was Robert Atwater?}} I can't promise it. Would you like me to make you a copy?}} That won't be necessary. And I don't give a damn for your promises. Make no copies. You are to return the original to me when you are done with it. That is an order, mister. Now, get out!}} A window opens I told you. I do not get involved any more! It is bad for you, ya? It is worse for me! What do they do to communists in your country? You lose a job and you get another job. Me, I am not a citizen. Me, they send me back to Germany. I think I like it here.}} Well, that's good! You just say nothing then! Nobody knows anything. It is over!}} Which one?}} I'll get rid of the child. But it'll be a messy business. The investigator is an old friend of mine from college. He's too damn smart. When he hears of another death, look out! If this blows up, I'll take the heat. But the others — }} What the fuck do you think you're doing?! You son of a bitch!}} Follow me, Bryan.|O'Connor looks in the direction indicated and sees the figure of a person near a vehicle far away, who seems to be waving for them to approach.}} Or take the boy back.}} A curtain falls Well, if you come with me, Mr. Studeman, I can hook you up. And, then, if you don't mind, the vice president would like another word with you.|Cut to Jonathan Studeman speaking into a telephone handset. We can hear and tell that the voice on the other end is that of Dr. Isaac Levanthal, but there is latency in replies, intermingled with clicks and whizzes.}} Okay. Now you listen to me, Isaac. I've no intention of returning to the Marshall Islands. You tell Commander O'Connor that I want all remains sent to Pearl Harbor for autopsies. And I want a report on everything that was done for the boy. Help me out here, Isaac. I'm not interested in protecting O'Connor or Admiral Hollingsworth or the Navy or even the testing program. Eisenhower expects a thorough job, and I mean to provide it! Now, is there anything else?}} No, Jon. I guess not.}} Listen, young man, you and I had a bad beginning. Let's not drag it out. I want you off this investigation.}} I imagined that you might.}} Yes. That was my reaction, too. I never asked him if Atwater worked for the CIA. That was the farthest thing from my mind. So why do you suppose he would say something like that?}} You wait outside. I'll call Allen myself.}} Oh, no. No, no, no. As a lawyer, Mr. Nixon, I strongly recommend that you do not call Allen Dulles.}} Fuck you, Studeman. Who the hell do you think you are? I made a phone call myself when you left. To President Eisenhower. I told him about you. I asked him to fire your ass and put the FBI onto the matter as Attorney General Wilson wanted from the start. Eisenhower has agreed. So I’m taking you off this case, counselor, for good.}} Studeman, I am the vice president of the United States. I speak for the president. You are fired. And that's official.}} Very well. I'll go. But hear this, sir. Before I go I intend to report everything I know directly to Eisenhower as he asked me to do, and then I'll be gone from here, as you say — for good. You can tell the president, if you like, that I happen to agree with you. The FBI should handle this matter, and they'll need months to get to the bottom of it. But for my part, I'll be telling him there was a conspiracy, and that it involves unknown persons inside the testing program. I'll tell him about the letter, and about McCarthy, and about the Navy, and about you, sir, all of you apparently wanting to let this shipwreck sink under the waves. It'll be up to Eisenhower what he wants to do about it.}} Enlisting a bigot The doctor delivers a child What a beautiful car you have there. Is it a Bentley?}} Shall we go inside?|Cut to Jim Jones at the desk in his office. Levanthal is standing in front of Jones, next to the sitting child and his female friend, Natalia Lysenko, who sits quietly. At various spots around the room, against the walls, members of Jones's close staff, all white, including his wife Marceline, have also taken seats. Jones is studying a photograph of a young man in a Navy uniform.}} — I’m sorry. I did not catch your name, Miss.|The ruddy complexioned Natalia rises from her chair but seems hesitant to speak. She looks at Levanthal. But the doctor only pushes her aside, gently, and, with a gesture, offers Natalia's chair to Kimiko. Kimiko sits there, holding the infant in her lap, close beside the hair-lipped orphan Mikado. Natalia seems nonplussed, annoyed that Levanthal's distraction, his attention to the beautiful Kimiko, is forcing her to speak.}} My name is Natalia Lysenko.}} But aren’t you a foreigner?}} — I am a proud American.}} Вы русский?}} Да! Вы говорите на русском языке?|Kimiko and Natalia have a brief conversation in Russian, the words of which are drowned out by the reaction of the men.}} Tell her that the child next to her is an orphan.|Natalia Lysenko repeats the indicated words in Russian, adding nothing. Levanthal continues and pauses for translation at the end of each sentence.}} What is this lovely baby’s name, my dear?}} I like that name.}}